Q1.
Organise yourselves into groups of five students each. Take up a group project to collect old coins from family members, neighbours, shopkeepers, and so on. Document their various features — what are they made of, what is the year inscribed on the coins, what do you observe on the obverse and reverse sides of the coins. What can you guess from your observations? How would you know if your guesses are true?
Answer
How to run the project. Split the five jobs: two collectors, one photographer, one record-keeper, one presenter. Never clean or scrub a coin — cleaning destroys exactly the evidence you are collecting. Return every borrowed coin.
Record each coin in a table like this:
| Sl. | Denomination | Year | Metal / colour | Shape & size | Obverse (head) | Reverse (tail) | Script / language |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 quarter anna | 1918 | Copper, brown | Round, thick | Ruler's head | “ONE QUARTER ANNA INDIA” | English + Urdu |
| 2 | 1 paisa | 1945 | Bronze | Round with a hole | “INDIA” | Value | English + Urdu |
| 3 | ₹1 | 2002 | Steel, silvery | Round | Ashoka Lion Capital | Value + grain motif | Hindi + English |
| 4 | ₹20 commemorative | 2021 | Bimetallic | Twelve-sided | Lion Capital | 75th Year of Independence emblem | Hindi + English |
What good guesses look like. A guess must be tied to something you actually saw:
- “The oldest coins carry only English and Urdu, the newer ones Hindi and English — so the languages on money changed after Independence.”
- “Older coins are heavier and made of copper or bronze; today's are light steel — so cheaper metals replaced costly ones.”
- “All modern coins carry the Ashoka Lion Capital — so one national authority, the RBI, now issues them all, unlike the many kingdoms of ancient times.”
- “The ₹20 coin of 2021 shows the 75-years-of-Independence emblem — so special coins are minted to mark national events.”
How to test whether the guesses are true. A guess becomes knowledge only when it is checked:
- Compare with the coin photographs in the chapter (Fig. 11.13 and Fig. 11.14).
- Check the official RBI and India Government Mint coin lists in the school library or on their websites.
- Visit or write to a local museum or a numismatics (coin-study) club.
- Interview grandparents about what each coin could buy in their childhood.
- Enlarge your sample — a pattern seen in 30 coins is far more reliable than one seen in 4.
Tip: a single odd coin proves nothing. Historians trust a pattern that repeats across many finds — which is exactly why archaeologists count coins rather than admire them one by one.